Publication History:
Place of Publication: NE Arkansas, Sharp County, AR
Frequency: Weekly
Volume and Issue Data: January 18, 1972 through August 9, 1974 (holdings). Paper ceased in 1978.
Size and Format: 8 1/2 x 11, typed text with handwritten headlines and hand-drawn graphics, mimeographed, issues run up to 8 pages.
Editor/Publisher: “a character” : Joseph H. Weston, editor and publisher
Title Changes and Continuation: None
General Description and Notes:
This was a community paper with a partisan political edge. Text of the paper is typed, and all headlines, sub-heads, graphics, and ads are handwritten and or/hand drawn. The first issue claims the paper is “Sharp County’s only metropolitan newspaper–professional journalism with conscience and vision” (Vol. 1, No. 3, Feb. 1, 1972, adds “with conscience, courage, vision!”). With headlines such as “Is Judge Ransom C. Jones Operating His city Court In Cave City as a Racket Under Order from Elvis” and “Rat Poison Deliberately Fed into Public Drinking Water for More Than a Quarter of a Century,” it is not hard to imagine that the editor invited libel lawsuits. The March 28, 1973 edition (Vol. 2, No. 13) includes “An Appeal for Help” (p. 3) because, as the editor writes, members of the Sharp County political establishment “induced my next door neighbor, to swear out a warrant for my arrest on the antique charge of ‘criminal libel’ for publishing an article in which I attacked our corrupt County Judge Lester Anderson and his crony and gravel contractor, Dickey, with equal vigor. The charge is preposterous, and the law is ridiculous.”
Information Sources:
Bibliography: None
Locations: Arkansas Historical Commission, Little Rock, AR (collection only has the 1972-74 issues)
The Handwritten Newspapers Project 
Mar 06, 2014 @ 07:41:42
My mother and I were in the headlines of the sharp citizen in about 1972-1974. The headlines were about Norma Young running a whore house in Aurora MO. My name is Wayne Young and I was about 15 at the time. We actually were running a motel as my parents had been separated and my father Foster Young provided the newspapers to the doorsteps of the local leaders of the community in an effort to drive my mother back to him ( I once found a bundle of maybe 50-100 papers in his basement ). Do you have access to these papers. Please call me or email. 559-292-3091 or wayne-young@comcast.net. I would appreciate any help you might give and the closure it may provide. Both my parents are now deceased. Thanks, Wayne.
Sep 22, 2014 @ 18:01:05
Hi, I would like to get an electronic copy of my father’s Sharp Citizen newspapers, for though i have fond memories, i don’t have many copies of his papers. Do you have a way to purchase or download a copy of the electronic archive? Would someone message me on FB, if so. Thanks.